Ultimate Finance
A Bristol-based independent lending structured facilities of up to £10m against debtors, plant and property, with a decision in principle inside 48 hours where it can.
What they do
Ultimate Finance has lent since 2002, is owned by Tavistock, and has advanced more than £10bn. Its structured finance product combines invoice finance of up to £10m, asset finance to £3m, commercial property lending to £3m and a small cashflow element into a single facility with one relationship manager, alongside a separate bridging line from £50k to £1.5m. The borrowing base is built on debtors, the order book, plant and property, and there is no upfront commitment fee. A decision in principle is targeted within two working days.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
Speed and simplicity are what this lender sells, and both matter most at the lower end of a £3–15m raise: a buyout, a shareholder exit, a restructuring or an acquisition where the working capital has to be in place on completion. One relationship manager rather than a committee chain suits a management team running a transaction alongside a day job.
Where they are not the fit
The structured facility caps at £10m in total, and inventory is generally not funded within it, which is a material gap for a stock-heavy business. Above that ceiling, or where inventory is the main asset, the multi-asset houses are the better fit. Advance rates are not published.
Published terms
- Pricing
- Not published
- Speed to terms
- Fast - decision in principle within 48 hours where possible
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Both - primarily corporate/owner-managed; explicitly funds MBI/MBO, acquisitions, restructures, shareholder exits, growth
- Where they lend
- UK-wide; Bristol HQ
- How they decide
- In-house deal team with single relationship manager; Tavistock-backed; decision in principle within 48 hours where possible; delegated authority implied. Authority is delegated below committee on at least part of the book
- Security
- A borrowing base over receivables, inventory and plant
- Covenants
- Springing covenant, tested only when a trigger is hit
As published by the lender and last reviewed June 2026. Terms quoted on a deal are set by the credit, not by a published band.
What rules a deal out
Stated limits, taken from Ultimate Finance’s own published criteria. A limit is where a lender starts from, not where it always ends: several of these move on a strong enough credit.
- ~£10m structured-facility cap
- Stock generally NOT funded in structured product
- No appetite in adult, crypto, gambling or weapons
How they sit against the category
- Its published ceiling is £10m; 19 of the 40 asset-based lenders here go at least as high.
- Like 29 of the 40, it publishes no indicative price — a margin comes from a conversation, not a page.
Counted across the 40 asset-based & asset-finance lenders in this directory, on what each one publishes. What a lender discloses and what it will do are different things.
Questions this page answers
How large a facility does Ultimate Finance write?
Published facilities run £500k to £10m. A band is what a lender states it will do, not what it will do on a given credit.
How quickly does Ultimate Finance move?
Fast - decision in principle within 48 hours where possible. Published timetables describe a clean case; anything unusual in the security or the structure adds to them.
Does Ultimate Finance lend to companies without a private-equity sponsor?
Yes. Ultimate Finance lends to owner-managed and sponsor-backed borrowers alike, so a company with no private-equity backer is not out of scope on that ground.
Where does Ultimate Finance lend?
Ultimate Finance lends in UK-wide; Bristol HQ.
What covenants does Ultimate Finance set?
Springing covenant, tested only when a trigger is hit. A covenant package is negotiated on the facility; the published style is where the negotiation starts.
On the record
2025: raised max invoice finance facility from £7m to £10m to target larger deals; 60 working-capital deals in first five months — April/May highest single months for new deal value in five years (thebusinessdesk.com.
2025: £20m loan-on-loan facility from OakNorth Bank to support bridging book growth (oaknorth.co.uk.
Sources: ultimatefinance.co.uk · thebusinessdesk.com
This profile is a curated reference note drawn from public sources, not financial advice or a recommendation. Appetite and terms change; a lender's fit for a given credit is established by approaching it, not inferred from a page.